Final Thoughts
by BobMalooga
Summary: The final thoughts of Dawn Hall before he dies during the Crisis.


Final Thoughts  
Featuring Dove I  
By Keith A. Kilburn   
  
Disclaimer: All the characters are owned by DC Comics and Time/Warner; this is an original story that does not intend to infringe on their copyright.   
  
The street erupts into chaos around me; mere moments before I thought this whole   
nightmare might be ending.   
  
People are running and screaming, fighting mindlessly with one another, with me   
and my brother Hank... my brother Hawk. He wades in mindlessly slugging where   
angels fear to tread and I watch as he hurls people to and fro, cutting a path   
through them. Hank is like that. He's militant and believes that when push comes   
to shove... well, Hank believes that you should shove HARD and fast, making sure   
the other guy doesn't get back up.   
  
Me, I try to be the voice of reason... I hate violence.   
  
I hate the sounds of violence, hate the sounds of bones breaking and I hate to   
see people get hurt. I'm a true pacifist. I know it's a strange position to have   
when you're a super-hero but that's just how I am. I'd much rather talk a   
resisting criminal into surrendering than have to stand by and watch my brother   
beat him to a bloody pulp before I can intervene and prevent permanent,   
crippling damage. How we've worked together this long is beyond me. I mean,   
don't get me wrong, I love my brother... but I can't stand his point of view.   
  
Especially at times like this...   
  
I've been working, have finally got part of the crowd to listen to me and to   
calm down so that I can direct them out of the area in an orderly fashoin when,   
once again, the Shadow Demons that have been the foot soldiers of the Crisis   
advance upon us again. The mayhem that erupted just minutes before erupts all   
over again, destroying all vetiges of what little calm I'd been able to create.   
And Hawk is in the middle of it, loving every minute of it.   
  
I grab a young mother with two clinging children and move her to safety seconds   
before one of the Shadow Demons can get to her. I'm quick and agile, powers I   
got from the Voice all those years ago. God, I wonder where that Voice is now   
and why it gave me such damned useless powers.   
  
My thoughts shatter along with all the glass windows of an apartment building   
across the crowded New York City street; the building explodes into flame. A   
shadow creature emerges from it's top floor and then I hear the tell-tale sounds   
of metal support beams groaning, the roar of the fire as it licks the masonry,   
and I know that the building is gonna topple any moment now... its just a matter   
of time. But then that't the problem, isn't it ? We are running out of time.   
Literally.   
  
In all this confusion I almost want to just leave, leave and let it burn, let   
them all burn. I mean, what can I, Dove, do to stop a burning building from   
falling ? Realistically, now ? Besides its probably empty, right? Better to stay   
here and try to clear the area around it of pedestrians....   
  
But my first hope is wrong. It's not empty. Even in all this rioting and   
confusion I can tell it hasn't been emptied. There in one of the bottom floor   
windows I can see a small group of kids. They're watching Hawk battle Shadow   
Demons, swatting them about with a hood he ripped off a car. They're not as   
frightened as they should be, but then they can't see the condition of the   
building they're in, can they ?   
  
For a split second I consider getting Hawk's attention, getting him to help me   
and then it dawn's on me that I could never get his attention long enough to   
persuade him to stop fighting those Shadow Creatures long enough to give me a   
hand. And, in all honesty, even if I did get his attention he probably wouldn't   
stop and help me save those children.   
  
Racing across the street, I hurdle scattered trash cans, handspring over an   
abandoned car, then kick a fallen trash can back upright against the apartment   
exterior; it's sturdy, I climb onto it. "You kids gotta get out of here now !" I   
yell as I work the shattered glass from the window frame, throwing it aside as   
carefully as I can in all the confusion, trying not to sound scared for them...   
or for myself. I'm surprised when the bunch of them listen to me, pressing up   
expectantly on their side of the window sill.   
  
Pulling the first one through the window, I set him down and point toward a   
nearby alleyway, telling him to get as far from the building as his little legs   
can carry him. He makes for it as if the Shadow Creatures were on his very   
heels... as does the second kid I pull through the window.   
  
I'm doing it.   
  
We are all gonna make it.   
  
Or so I thought.   
  
I get the third kid out and on her way but then that the sounds of metal   
groaning and support beams twisting fills my ears and I know this building is   
coming down and nothing short of an act of God is gonna stop it. I pull the   
fourth kid out just in time. He cries out, "Watch out, Mister !" And I turn and   
see a Shadow Demon coming right at me.   
  
You have to picture it in your mind to fully understand my situation...there I   
am...twelve year old kid in my arms, with a burning, collapsing building above   
me and a Shadow Demon bearing down on top of the both of us. Between a rock and   
a hard place, wouldn't you say ?   
  
And then what I've been fearing would happen all along goes and happens.   
The support beams give and the burning building begins to collapse, slowly and   
relentlessly.   
  
Mercilessly.   
  
And my only powers are that I'm quick and agile.   
  
I know that I don't have time to move us both. I'm fast but not that fast, or   
should I say, not that strong. I can't get around the encroaching Shadow Demon   
carrying a 90 lb kid in my arms. Not enough of a distance between him and us for   
me to reach top speed and outrun him.   
  
It's me or him and I know this.   
  
And that's when everything begins to move real slow, like a movie does when they   
are trying to build suspense. I shift the young boy in my arms and hurl him as   
far and away as I can as the building begins to rain down debris on me, like a   
giant wave crashing straight down upon us all in a horrible slow- motion, first   
comes the spray...   
  
The Demon moves closer, straight for me, leaving the boy alone as the kid sails   
through the air, yelling at the top of his lungs.   
  
I think about all those summers in Edmond, Virginia playing catch with Dad,   
Uncle James and Hank.   
  
I think about my gentle mom and her apple pies.   
  
And the Shadow Demon is almost upon me, arms out-stretched to grab me me up. All   
the while the wave continues its descent ... through the debris I see the boy   
smack butt-first onto the street. He rolls a few times before stopping,   
scrambles to his feet and runs away, runs after his fleeing friends. Somehow, I   
know he will make it so I don't worry.   
  
I'm thinking about the Titans and all the great times I had with them.   
About Lilith, about our first time together and how I should have fought like   
hell to keep her in my life, rather than mutely watch her walk out on our   
engagement, walk out on us.   
  
The Shadow Demon is trying to enfold me in it's killing embrace now but I'm not   
worried about him either; the wave has crested and is coming down toward us,   
fast and hard now, nothing can stop it now...not even God.   
  
That's the moment Hank spots me and yell's my name as I turn to dive back in the   
window I had been pulling kids from. My hope being that I can somehow find an   
air pocket to survive the building collapse in.   
  
I think about how I should have told Lilith that I loved her more.   
I think about how I didn't tell my parents goodbye when I left today.   
I think about my brother Hank and how lonely he is gonna be.   
  
And the Shadow Creature's hand rakes across my back, I howl out in pain as the   
energy eats right through me, but then the wave finally hits and we are both   
taken under as the building smashes down on us.   
  
And then I think no more.   
THE END   
THE END   
  
  
  
tbthorn@msn.com  



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